Using data on "exoplanets" from Nasa's Kepler telescope, scientists calculate how many stars in Milky Way could have planets in zones where liquid water could exist

The Milky Way galaxy may be home to billions of planets orbiting their host stars in a “habitable zone” where life could theoretically exist, researchers said Wednesday.

NASA’s Kepler space telescope, launched in 2009 to search for so-called “exoplanets” outside our own solar system, has already found thousands – many of them in systems like our own with multiple planets orbiting a star.

Using this data, researchers from the Australian National University and the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen attempted to calculate how many stars in the Milky Way could have planets in their habitable zones where liquid water could exist – the prerequisite for life whether primitive or complex.

“The calculations show that billions of the stars in the Milky Way will have one to three planets in the habitable zone, where there is the potential for liquid water and where life could exist,” said a statement from the Niels Bohr Institute.

Fault lines dating back hundreds of millions of years in Oklahoma that have been recently reactivated could lead to a devastating quake in the state where many structures were not built to withstand major seismic activity, a report said.

The state, which has seen several hundred seismic events over the past five years, has "a high degree of potential earthquake hazards," according to the study accepted for publication this month whose authors include researchers from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).

"The majority of the recent earthquakes in central Oklahoma define reactivated ancient faults at shallow depths in the crust" of less than 3.7 miles (6 km), said the report for the American Geophysical Union.

'For the first time ever, we might shift the planet from friend to foe.'

Humanity has raced past four of the boundaries keeping it hospitable to life, and we're inching close to the remaining five, an Earth resilience strategist has found.

In a paper published in Science in January 2015, Johan Rockström argues that we've already screwed up with regards to climate change, extinction of species, addition of phosphorus and nitrogen to the world's ecosystems and deforestation. We are well within the boundaries for ocean acidification and freshwater use meanwhile, but cutting it fine with regards to emission of poisonous aerosols and stratospheric ozone depletion. "The planet has been our best friend by buffering our actions and showing its resilience," Rockström said. "But for the first time ever, we might shift the planet from friend to foe." This table by Ted shows where we're at according to his scale:

Coloradans who were up before the sun on Wednesday morning saw a "bright green" fireball soar across the sky before it burned out over the mountains.

More than 60 eyewitnesses filed sightings on the American Meteor Society's website.

Greg Moore, an analyst and contributor at Weather5280, told Mashable he was driving over the top of Vail pass, west of Denver, just before 6 a.m. local time when "a bright green fireball caught my eye."

The object had a "flaming tail with a long trail behind it," Moore said. "As it moved towards the far horizon it started to flame out, but even after the tail was gone a bright orange ball was still visible till it disappeared beyond the far mountain range."

"It was pretty incredible," he said.

Snapchat user Joel Jimenez sent Mashable video he caught from a Home Depot parking lot in Fort Collins.

It remains a mystery how black holes could have grown so huge in such short time

Astronomers have discovered the largest and most luminous black hole ever seen — an ancient monster with a mass about 12 billion times that of the sun — that dates back to when the universe was less than 1 billion years old.

It remains a mystery how black holes could have grown so huge in such a relatively brief time after the dawn of the universe, researchers say.

Supermassive black holes are thought to lurk in the hearts of most, if not all, large galaxies. The largest black holes found so far in the nearby universe have masses more than 10 billion times that of the sun. In comparison, the black hole at the center of the Milky Way is thought to have a mass only 4 million to 5 million times that of the sun.

Armageddon Online proudly presents... Nearly 3000survival books, manuals, guides and more in one place! Topics include: - Natural Disaster Survival, Food and Water Prep - Navigation - General Urban and Wilderness Preparedness - Gun Manuals - Evasion Techniques - and much more! Opening the files requires ADOBE READER or a web browser with it built in. All of the following files are free to read and download individually. If you would like access to all 3000 files at once (to download) - please consider a donation to help with bandwidth! Questions or comments : contact me here. The full downloads are .RAR and .ZIP format and quite large in size. Please be familiar with those formats and .PDF files before any further action!

Geyelin's Poultry Breeding, in a commercial point of view, as carried out by the National poultry company (limited), Bromley, Kent. Natural and artificial hatching, rearing and fattening, on entirely new and scientific principles, with all the necessary plans, elevations, sections, and details, and a notice of the poultry establishments in France - Geyelin, George Kennedy (1867)

Poultry Appliances & Handicraft how to make & use labor-saving devices, with descriptive plans for food & water supply, building & miscellaneous needs; also treats on artificial incubation & brooding; Fiske, George B. (1902)

Hurricane

Biological

Nuclear Survival

11 Steps - Nuclear Survival - This pamphlet describes what YOU can do before and following a nuclear attack. You can greatly increase your family's and your own protection by taking the Eleven Steps to Survival

Nuclear War Survival Skills - The purpose of this book is to provide Americans and other unprepared people with information and self-help instructions that will significantly increase their chances of surviving a nuclear attack.

The degradation of the Western political and media elite

Foreign Affairs is the publication of the elitist Council on Foreign Relations, a collection of former and current government officials, academics, and corporate and financial executives who regard themselves as the custodian and formulator of US foreign policy. The publication of the council carries the heavy weight of authority. One doesn’t expect to find humor in it, but I found myself roaring with laughter while reading an article in the February 5 online issue by Alexander J. Motyl, “Goodbye, Putin: Why the President’s Days Are Numbered.”

I assumed I was reading a clever parody of Washington’s anti-Putin propaganda. Absurd statement followed absurd statement. It was better than Colbert. I couldn’t stop laughing.

To my dismay I discovered that the absolute gibberish wasn’t a parody of Washington’s propaganda. Motyl, an ardent Ukrainian nationalist, is a professor at Rugers University and was not joking when he wrote that Putin had stolen $45 billion, that Putin was resurrecting the Soviet Empire, that Putin had troops and tanks in Ukraine and had started the war in Ukraine, that Putin is an authoritarian whose regime is “exceedingly brittle” and subject to being overthrown at any time by the people Putin has bought off with revenues from the former high oil price, or by “an Orange Revolution in Moscow” in which Putin is overthrown by Washington orchestrated demonstrations by US financed NGOs as in Ukraine, or by a coup d’etat by Putin’s Praetorial guards. And if none of this sends Putin goodbye, the North Caucasus, Chechnya, Ingushetia, Dagestan, and the Crimean Tarters are spinning out of control and will do Washington’s will by unseating Putin. Only the West’s friendly relationship with Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakstan can shield “the rest of the world from Putin’s disastrous legacy of ruin.”

Will a small tech elite pit themselves against the rest of humanity in a 21st "Artilect" war of gigadeath?

Join us Thursday, Feb. 19 for a live interview with Dr. Hugo de Garis on the Alex Jones Radio Show. We’ll explore the possibility/inevitability of Artilects and the Artilect War and the ethical issues that apply to all scientists and engineers whether they work on AI or work for the military-industrial complex.

Much has been written about Ray Kurzweil’s prediction of “The Singularity” where advances in artificial intelligence (AI), genetics, robotics, and nanotechnology would allow man to merge with machines, with the resulting god-like cyborgs living forever.

When I saw the news about a new report from Oxford University’s Future of Humanity Institute and the Global Challenges Foundation, it all seemed strangely familiar. The report, covered in the Financial Times and also the Daily Mail, offers a scientific assessment of the twelve most likely risks of a literal apocalypse across our planet.

“We were surprised to find that no one else had compiled a list of global risks with impacts that, for all practical purposes, can be called infinite,” co-author Dennis Pamlin of the Global Challenges Foundation told the Financial Times.

I also created a detailed infographic in 2012 which outlined the greatest apocalyptic threats posed by runaway science. That infographic is shown below.

What’s interesting is that about half of the Oxford University scientists’ predictions overlap my own predictions from 2012. Technically, my list was focused on threats from runaway disastrous science and did not attempt to incorporate possible threats from all sectors (such as economic collapse or government collapse). If I had included economic and government sectors, there would have been even more overlap.

The Japan Meteorological Agency has issued a Tsunami warning after a 6.9 magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of North Eastern Japan.

Small earthquakes shaking Oklahoma and southern Kansas daily and linked to energy drilling are dramatically increasing the chance of bigger and dangerous quakes, federal research indicates.

This once stable region is now just as likely to see serious damaging and potentially harmful earthquakes as the highest risk places east of the Rockies such as New Madrid, Missouri, and Charleston, South Carolina, which had major quakes in the past two centuries.

Still it’s a low risk, about a 1 in 2,500 years’ chance of happening, according to geophysicist William Ellsworth of the U.S. Geological Survey.

What are the chances of all human life being destroyed by a supervolcano? Or taken over by robots? A new report from Oxford university assesses the risks of apocalypse

ince the dawn of civilisation people have speculated about apocalyptic bangs and whimpers that could wipe us out. Now a team from Oxford university’s Future of Humanity Institute and the Global Challenges Foundation has come up with the first serious scientific assessment of the gravest risks we face.

Although civilisation has ended many times in popular fiction, the issue has been almost entirely ignored by governments. “We were surprised to find that no one else had compiled a list of global risks with impacts that, for all practical purposes, can be called infinite,” says co-author Dennis Pamlin of the Global Challenges Foundation. “We don’t want to be accused of scaremongering but we want to get policy makers talking.” (SOURCE)

Whether you think you’re prepared or not, if it hit the fan – right now – what would you do?

I’m mostly curious to hear what you have to say, but here are a few of my thoughts —

If ‘it’ happened right at this moment, the things that I would do next are relative to where I am at the moment, coupled with whatever ‘it’ is.

For this hypothetical question, lets just presume that ‘it’ is pretty bad, and will probably be long lasting while the effects will be variable – some regions worse than others – but much worse in the cities and MSA’s (Metropolitan Statistical Areas).

Even for those who have diligently prepared for disaster, sometimes there is a feeling that there just isn’t enough in one’s food and supply inventory yet… There also may be the feeling that there is still a lack of adequate self-sufficiency / self-reliance skills to assist in the endeavor to ‘stay alive’ long term without the systemic infrastructure which brings us our modern life-sustaining food and supplies.

That said, if the SHTF right now, it will probably mostly be too late to accomplish fulfilling much of any deficit.

I ask you to seriously contemplate this question (of what would you do ‘right now’) because the answers to that question (and there will be many) will probably identify some areas where you are still lacking.

These are the things that you should take care of today, so that ‘if’ the SHTF for real, you won’t be too late.

The world has entered an era of “peak food” production with an array of staples from corn and rice to wheat and chicken slowing in growth – with potentially disastrous consequences for feeding the planet.

New research finds that the supply of 21 staples, such as eggs, meat, vegetables and soybeans is already beginning to run out of momentum, while the global population continues to soar.

Peak chicken was in 2006, while milk and wheat both peaked in 2004 and rice peaked way back in 1988, according to new research from Yale University, Michigan State University and the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research in Germany.

What makes the report particularly alarming is that so many crucial sources of food have peaked in a relatively short period of history, the researchers said.

“People often talk of substitution. If we run out of one substance we just substitute another. But if multiple resources are running out, we’ve got a problem. Mankind needs to accept that renewable raw materials are reaching their yield limits worldwide,” said Jianguo “Jack” Liu, of Michigan State University.

“This is a strong reason for integration ... rather than searching for a one-for-one substitution to offset shortages,” he added.

Astronomers in Australia have picked up an “alien” radio signal from space for the first time as it occurred. The signal, or radio “burst”, was discovered on May 15, 2014, though it’s just being reported by the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

“The burst was identified within 10 seconds of its occurrence,” said Emily Petroff, a doctoral student from Melbourne’s Swinburne University of Technology. “The importance of the discovery was recognized very quickly and we were all working very excitedly to contact other astronomers and telescopes around the world to look at the location of the burst.”

Emerging from an unknown source, these bursts are bright flashes of radio waves that emit as much energy in a few milliseconds as the sun does in 24 hours. “The first fast radio burst was discovered in 2007,” Petroff tells FoxNews.com, “and up until our discovery there were 8 more found in old or archival data.” While researchers use telescopes in Hawaii, India, Germany, Chile, California, and the California Islands to search for bursts, it is the CSIRO Parkes radio telescope in Eastern Australia that is the first to catch one as its happening.

The Future of Life Institute wants humanity to tread lightly while developing really smart machines

We’re decades away from being able to develop a sociopathic supercomputer that could enslave mankind, but artificial intelligence experts are already working to stave off the worst when — not if — machines become smarter than people.

AI experts around the globe are signing an open letter issued Sunday by the Future of Life Institute that pledges to safely and carefully coordinate progress in the field to ensure it does not grow beyond humanity’s control. Signees include co-founders of Deep Mind, the British AI company purchased by Google in January 2014; MIT professors; and experts at some of technology’s biggest corporations, including IBM’s Watson supercomputer team and Microsoft Research.

“The potential benefits are huge, since everything that civilization has to offer is a product of human intelligence….We recommend expanded research aimed at ensuring that increasingly capable AI systems are robust and beneficial: our AI systems must do what we want them to do,” the letter said in part. A research document attached to the open letter outlines potential pitfalls and recommends guidelines for continued AI development.

Rock expected to fly by at a distance of 1.2 million kilometers...

A potentially hazardous asteroid, at least 20 times the size of the Chelyabinsk meteorite, will approach the Earth on January 26. The rock is expected to fly by at a distance of 1.2 million kilometers.

The asteroid, named 2004 BL86 by scientists, is estimated to be between 440-1,000 meters in diameter. 1.2 million kilometers is approximately three times the distance from the Earth to the Moon.

According to astronomers, there is no threat of the object colliding with our planet. The Goldstone Observatory, located in California’s Mojave Desert, will observe the asteroid during its approach.

2004 BL86 was discovered on January 30, 2004, by the Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research (LINEAR), responsible for the majority of asteroid discoveries from 1998 until 2005, when it was overtaken by the Catalina Sky Survey (CSS). As of mid-September 2011, LINEAR had detected some 231,082 new objects, of which at least 2,423 were near-Earth asteroids and 279 comets.

A space object is considered potentially dangerous if it crosses the Earth’s orbit at a distance of less than 0.05 AU (approximately 19.5 distances from the Earth to the Moon), and if its diameter exceeds 100-150 meters. Objects of this size are large enough to cause unprecedented destruction, or generate a mammoth tsunami in case they fall into the ocean.

When a meteorite burst above the city of Chelyabinsk in February 2013, the impact was estimated to be equivalent to 440-500 kilotons of TNT. But the Chelyabinsk meteorite was relatively small, about 17 meters in diameter. It disintegrated with a blast at an altitude of over 20 kilometers.

The U.S. moved quickly to stem the Ebola virus from taking on massive proportions, but experts say the threat was a wake up call.

Dr. Irwin Redlener, director of Columbia University’s National Center for Disaster Preparedness, said the U.S. needs a central authority and coordination among a constellation of federal, state and local agencies.

“What we have here are a collection of random acts of preparedness,” Redlener told The Boston Globe. “Again, we’re laser-focused on what happened yesterday.”

Redlener said the appointment of federal Ebola czar Ronald Klain was an important step that enabled the U.S. to fight the virus, still considered a major global threat.

Despite the widespread news of Ebola’s outbreak and the apparent fright triggered by its rapid spread, Ebola is relatively easy to contain compared to some other unknown viruses, experts indicated.

Thomas Eric Duncan was misdiagnosed in a Dallas hospital and infected two nurses with the virus. His fiancee and those who lived with him never caught Ebola. People with the disease are noticeably ill and can be isolated.

But if Duncan had been carrying a new type of flu or a bug, the lack of an organized U.S. health response system could have been deadly.

And relying on the good will and untested competence of private hospitals is not a strategy that enables consistency. Different hospitals respond differently to health emergencies.

The costs for new protective garb needed to combat Ebola emerged just as suddenly as the virus itself, also.